Tornado lamp made with lasers

[Styropyro] did a great job of taking common parts and making an interesting item. He calls this his Tornado lamp, and it’s made with stuff you probably have around the house — well you might have to substitute more common glassware for that Erlenmeyer flask.

The bulk of the hack is in the base. You’ll find a laser diode pointed at a small scrap of mirror. That mirror is mounted on the center of a small case fan, giving the tornadic effect when spinning. To make everything fit just right, the laser is pointed horizontally, with the fan/mirror at a 45 degree angle. The beam points up through a hole in the project box and illuminates the liquid in the flask. That liquid is water doped with a substance that fluoresces. In this shot it’s some fluorescein, but we did mention you can do this with stuff from around the house. [Styropyro] demonstrates the use of liqud from some highlighting markers as a substitute.

If you’re decoration a mad scientist’s lab this is a perfect companion for a Jacob’s ladder.

Nice hack with common items. FYI, I have a post on my site that has the same dye extracted from a highlighter as you mentioned. Post shows extraction method and a link to the MSDS and a faux neon “light” just for fun.http://www.observationsblog.com/3/category/neon/1.html

I suspect the cool swirling effect is an artifact of the frame rate of the camera and the rotating beam.
Then, however, a simple (and quiet) lens that spreads the beam will produce nearly the same effect as the spinning mirror.